Computer platforms typically include one or more central processing unit (CPU) settings (knobs) that enable an end user to tailor platform processing to a type of workload that the user expects the platform to execute. CPU settings may be adjusted in a manner that optimizes performance of the platform in view of a workload of interest. In other circumstances, the CPU settings are placed in a default state for a generalized end user.
CPU settings may be enforced and/or implemented by a basic input/output system (BIOS) during a boot process of the computer platform. A number of performance-sensitive processor and platform-specific settings may be exposed via the BIOS settings of the platform. Settings include hardware prefetch settings, second sector prefetch settings, snoop filter settings, high-bandwidth memory option settings and/or hyper-threading settings. In the event that the end user has qualified a type of workload that will be performed by the platform and sets the BIOS accordingly, the platform may perform at its optimum ability for that workload. In other circumstances, improper CPU settings established by BIOS configuration and/or CPU settings that do not match one or more workloads executed by the platform may result in performance limitations of the platform when operating on the workload.